15 June 2008
Back From Our Holiday
15/06/08 05:45
Boy did we have an adventure during our recent holiday to Minnesota. The trip started out great as we caught the ferry with no problems and even went through customs with very little waiting. However once we crossed the border the weather problems began. In Seattle we were caught in a rainstorm that left the roads flooding and so much rain our wipers could not keep up. I finally told Doug that we needed to exit and stop for the night when our exit for 405 was spotted. We took the exit and found we were not only out of the rainstorm but the road was dry as a bone. So we drove on some more until it started to rain again and we decided to stop for the night so we would not get caught in another rainstorm.
Next day we were up and on the road again. It rained most all of the day until we arrived at Butte, Montana where it was snowing. Yes, snowing enough to stick on the road and ground. Luckily it was not a snowstorm so we made it to Billings for the evening. Montana is one big state! We felt like we were never going to get through all of it.
Thursday it was raining again and very windy. In fact there were some gusts of wind where we felt like the car was actually being stopped in its tracks, but we drove on and made it to Margaret's for the night. Jocelyn was back from her African adventure and has graduated from St. Cloud State with a degree in nursing. She was accepted to John Hopkins in Baltimore for a masters degree in forensic nursing, so she was busy sorting and packing to get ready for the big move in July. Andrew had left for Japan on the Sunday before we arrive so we missed seeing him during this visit.
Thursday night was full of rain, lightening, thunder and more wind. In fact when we left to head to Minneapolis a tree was down in their driveway making it difficult for us to leave. Late Friday morning we headed down to Minneapolis. Our plans were to stop in at our former place of employment to visit with folks and then head to Grumpys (a local bar) for drinks and chit chat. It was great to see a number of our former coworkers. I wish them all luck with the new PeopleSoft implementation. Go live date is set for July 1.
Saturday was the party for Joel's graduation. We had breakfast first with some friends at the Good Earth in Roseville and then headed to Farmington for the party. Along with my brother's sister Marlys families, my Aunt Ainie and Uncle Winnie were there and so were their two daughters, Rita and Pam. It was great to get a chance to visit with everyone. Which we continued as we all stayed at a couple of local hotels and then went to Curt and Sue's on Sunday. Luke, Curt's youngest son has a hedgehog which we all enjoyed seeing and holding.
Monday we were back at our friend Suzie and Ken's in Richfield. We got up early to go out to breakfast and to drive by the old house. We had to be back at Suzie's to meet her Dad and step-Mom as they were coming into town for a visit. In fact the rest of Monday was spent with Suzie's family, David and Seth and their partners and kids. The house was very busy as we were celebrating the grandkids half year birthdays as everyone was together. We took lots of pictures unfortunately we also left our camera at Suzie's and so we have no pictures of the trip to share.
Tuesday shopping at Rosedale to pick up things on our list, lunch with Marilyn and Wynn and on to St. Cloud for more shopping before heading to Marlys's place outside of New London. Margaret came down too so we had a great visit there along with a fish fry, corn on the cob and fresh raspberries. Yum. We left to head back home on Thursday morning. We had planned to leave around 4, but the electricity had gone out around 1:00 in the morning so we needed to wait until we had some more light in order to pack. We left around 5-ish and were on our way.
Yes, we encountered more rain and wind as we crossed North Dakota and Montana. We spent the night in Bozeman, MT and watched some of the Lakers and Celtics game. Can't believe the Celtics managed to come back from such a deficit to win! Friday we were up early and back on the road. We decided to cross into Canada from north of Spokane. The border crossing was no problem and then we drove into British Columbia in the Okanagan region. It was gorgeous! The highway was first called the Wildlife and Wine road which was very fitting. We were still hoping to make it to Vancouver to catch a ferry so we did not spend a lot of time stopping, but the scenery was wonderful and definitely a place we want to go back to sometime.
We did make Vancouver in time for the ferry, but as the 8:15 ferry was already full we had to wait for the 10:45 ferry, so we made it home to Nanaimo around 1:40 and immediately went to bed. We picked up Geiger from the kitty spa on Saturday morning and he has been overly friendly since. I think he is very glad to be home too.
So that is our trip in a nutshell. Thanks to everyone who made it so enjoyable and sorry that we were not able to see everyone. Thanks also to Leslie for the wonderful caramels. I even shared some with my family as they remind us of caramels we had as little kids. Thanks also to Jaki and Dale for the boxes of Grapenuts. We shared a couple of boxes with Barbara as she also prefers the American Grape-nuts to the Canadian version. Again a big thanks for the photographs you gave us and the postcards. Everyone loved them! A a final thank you to Suzie and Ken for letting us stay at their place during our visit. You were more the generous giving up your bedroom for us and we greatly appreciate it.
For those folks who are thinking about coming up to visit beautiful Vancouver Island. Our eclipse cruise is scheduled for July 15 - July 30. We do not yet have our flights booked so the time could fluctuate within a day or two either way.
Oh and we don't have any photographs. We'll have to wait until our camera, which we left behind, arrives in the mail. So instead we asked Geiger to do some drawings based on our descriptions. Enjoy.
_________________________
It was fun to see all of our old friends again
______________________
North Dakota is beautiful this time of year
_________________________
We held a hedgehog for the first time.
____________________
We ran into lots of storms on this trip
As soon as our camera arrives in the mail we'll send more pictures.
Next day we were up and on the road again. It rained most all of the day until we arrived at Butte, Montana where it was snowing. Yes, snowing enough to stick on the road and ground. Luckily it was not a snowstorm so we made it to Billings for the evening. Montana is one big state! We felt like we were never going to get through all of it.
Thursday it was raining again and very windy. In fact there were some gusts of wind where we felt like the car was actually being stopped in its tracks, but we drove on and made it to Margaret's for the night. Jocelyn was back from her African adventure and has graduated from St. Cloud State with a degree in nursing. She was accepted to John Hopkins in Baltimore for a masters degree in forensic nursing, so she was busy sorting and packing to get ready for the big move in July. Andrew had left for Japan on the Sunday before we arrive so we missed seeing him during this visit.
Thursday night was full of rain, lightening, thunder and more wind. In fact when we left to head to Minneapolis a tree was down in their driveway making it difficult for us to leave. Late Friday morning we headed down to Minneapolis. Our plans were to stop in at our former place of employment to visit with folks and then head to Grumpys (a local bar) for drinks and chit chat. It was great to see a number of our former coworkers. I wish them all luck with the new PeopleSoft implementation. Go live date is set for July 1.
Saturday was the party for Joel's graduation. We had breakfast first with some friends at the Good Earth in Roseville and then headed to Farmington for the party. Along with my brother's sister Marlys families, my Aunt Ainie and Uncle Winnie were there and so were their two daughters, Rita and Pam. It was great to get a chance to visit with everyone. Which we continued as we all stayed at a couple of local hotels and then went to Curt and Sue's on Sunday. Luke, Curt's youngest son has a hedgehog which we all enjoyed seeing and holding.
Monday we were back at our friend Suzie and Ken's in Richfield. We got up early to go out to breakfast and to drive by the old house. We had to be back at Suzie's to meet her Dad and step-Mom as they were coming into town for a visit. In fact the rest of Monday was spent with Suzie's family, David and Seth and their partners and kids. The house was very busy as we were celebrating the grandkids half year birthdays as everyone was together. We took lots of pictures unfortunately we also left our camera at Suzie's and so we have no pictures of the trip to share.
Tuesday shopping at Rosedale to pick up things on our list, lunch with Marilyn and Wynn and on to St. Cloud for more shopping before heading to Marlys's place outside of New London. Margaret came down too so we had a great visit there along with a fish fry, corn on the cob and fresh raspberries. Yum. We left to head back home on Thursday morning. We had planned to leave around 4, but the electricity had gone out around 1:00 in the morning so we needed to wait until we had some more light in order to pack. We left around 5-ish and were on our way.
Yes, we encountered more rain and wind as we crossed North Dakota and Montana. We spent the night in Bozeman, MT and watched some of the Lakers and Celtics game. Can't believe the Celtics managed to come back from such a deficit to win! Friday we were up early and back on the road. We decided to cross into Canada from north of Spokane. The border crossing was no problem and then we drove into British Columbia in the Okanagan region. It was gorgeous! The highway was first called the Wildlife and Wine road which was very fitting. We were still hoping to make it to Vancouver to catch a ferry so we did not spend a lot of time stopping, but the scenery was wonderful and definitely a place we want to go back to sometime.
We did make Vancouver in time for the ferry, but as the 8:15 ferry was already full we had to wait for the 10:45 ferry, so we made it home to Nanaimo around 1:40 and immediately went to bed. We picked up Geiger from the kitty spa on Saturday morning and he has been overly friendly since. I think he is very glad to be home too.
So that is our trip in a nutshell. Thanks to everyone who made it so enjoyable and sorry that we were not able to see everyone. Thanks also to Leslie for the wonderful caramels. I even shared some with my family as they remind us of caramels we had as little kids. Thanks also to Jaki and Dale for the boxes of Grapenuts. We shared a couple of boxes with Barbara as she also prefers the American Grape-nuts to the Canadian version. Again a big thanks for the photographs you gave us and the postcards. Everyone loved them! A a final thank you to Suzie and Ken for letting us stay at their place during our visit. You were more the generous giving up your bedroom for us and we greatly appreciate it.
For those folks who are thinking about coming up to visit beautiful Vancouver Island. Our eclipse cruise is scheduled for July 15 - July 30. We do not yet have our flights booked so the time could fluctuate within a day or two either way.
Oh and we don't have any photographs. We'll have to wait until our camera, which we left behind, arrives in the mail. So instead we asked Geiger to do some drawings based on our descriptions. Enjoy.
_________________________
It was fun to see all of our old friends again
______________________
North Dakota is beautiful this time of year
_________________________
We held a hedgehog for the first time.
____________________
We ran into lots of storms on this trip
As soon as our camera arrives in the mail we'll send more pictures.